VMware released vSphere 5.1 at VMworld 2012 in San Francisco and with any new product release there are usually bumps on the road, compatibility issues and things that just don’t work. VMware vSphere 5.1 is no exception.

I have been part of many beta tests for other companies as well as several vSphere editions going back to 3.x. Not every configuration and product can be tested. The beta process does catch a lot of issues. The day software goes live without any issues every time, a lot of people will be without work..

I have decided to catalog a few of the known issues with the vSphere 5.1 release.

Perhaps the larges issue is that VMware View and vSphere 5.1 are not compatible yet.

This issue only impacts the start/re-start time for vCenter Server. It does not affect the ongoing operations after vCenter Server has started. In fact, due to improvements to the vCenter Server database, the use of vSphere Web Client, the Inventory Service cache, customers will notice significant performance improvements in vCenter Server 5.1.

PowerPath/VE customers, hold off vSphere 5.1 upgrades (GA was yesterday). Hotfix P02 from EMC is in days, and so is the expected VMware fix, follow the above link for more details on Chad Sakac’s blog post

Kendrick Coleman found an issue with the most recent release of DSM 4.1 and vSphere 5.1

It’s possible to mount both NFS and iSCSI datastores, but when you try to build or power on a VM, everything begins to halt when it needs to write to disk. If everything runs in memory (like mounting an ISO and beginning an OS installation), but when it comes to install the OS to disk, it begins to crawl. I checked the vmkernel log and here is what is shown. You can see that after I power on the VM, it gets binded to a port but when it tries to read from disk, there are all sorts of errors

Update Manager 5.1 reports the compliance status as Incompatible when scanning or remediating ESXi 5.x hosts that belong to an HA cluster

I have heard unconfirmed reports of difficulties with the upgrade process of vCenter particularly with registering Inventory Service and SSO with vCenter when using CA Signed SSL Certificates. As I’m using CA Signed Certificates in my lab environment I will update this article when I have completed my upgrade.

When you use NFS datastores that support Hardware Acceleration, the vSphere Client allows you to create virtual disks in Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed (zeroedthick) or Thick Provision Eager Zeroed (eagerzeroedthick) format. However, when you check the disk type on the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box, the Disk Provisioning section always shows Thick Provision Eager Zeroed as the disk format no matter which format you selected during the disk creation. ESXi does not distinguish between lazy zeroed and eager zeroed virtual disks on NFS datastores.

As with any upgrade please carefully consider especially before implementing in production. Reach out to your partners and trusted advisers for guidance so they can evaluate your environment to minimize issues.

Are you interested in VMware View and Cisco UCS and have questions. Are you going to be in the Carolinas or Virginia in the near future. If so you are in luck. Varrow is hosting a series of Lunch and Learn events about VMware View on Cisco UCS hosted by Dave Lawrence. Come join us, you won’t be dissapointed.

The New Storage Accelerator – See how this technology is dramatically changing VDI storage design

How to leverage VDI to significantly reduce costs

How UCS’ scalability and VMware integration helps VDI reach its full potential

Demo – View Client for iPad – it’s a game changer & it’s cool!

Join us for lunch and you will have an opportunity to experience the powerful benefits of the advanced feature set available in VMware View’s virtual desktop infrastructure. These are the advanced features that convinced Gartner Group to name VMware View the clear solution leader and visionary in the virtual desktop arena. We will also demo a live VMware View environment showing you the View Manager, and a few different clients.

Cisco UCS has seen an amazing adoption rate due to its single management, impressive scalability, and the best VMware integration features of any server platform. These combine to make it the best platform for hosting VMware View.

You have probably all heard about the upstart Cisco entering the blade market a few years ago with the UCS platform. Have you always wanted to get your hands on it but you don’t want to buy your own, not everyone can have UCS at home or even work. Well here is your chance to. Cisco has a UCS emulator currently on version 2.0 that you can run as a virtual machine in your VMware virtual environment.

You can find the download hereClick here to download.Cisco UCS Platform Emulator is packaged as a compact virtual machine (VM) with the CentOS open sourceLinux distribution. This VM can run a Cisco UCS Manager multichassis, multiblade simulation on a laptopor desktop computer and does not require an internet connection.Cisco UCS Platform Emulator is delivered as a zip file. The filename of the zip file includes the Cisco UCS Platform Emulator release number, such asCisco_UCS_Platform_Emulator_v2.0.99180.370305.zip. The file size is approximately 300to 400 MB.